


Just A Semblance Of Power

by FinalSwanSong



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 12:41:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10617135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FinalSwanSong/pseuds/FinalSwanSong
Summary: Everybody in the world has a superpower that compliments their soulmates superpower. When together, both their powers increase in strength exponentially. You have the most useless power ever, when one day......I did not faithfully follow the prompt to the letter. But you get the idea.





	

Living in a world of superpowers was surprisingly easy. Not everyone had the power to leap buildings in a single bound, or crush solid steel with bare hands, or fly at Mach 2 speed, or read minds. Most people just had some lower scale powers, maybe they could run slightly faster, or change the colour of their eyes. There were useful powers and there were useless powers. But nobody expected everyone to have strong powers or even just useful powers. No. The world was designed to help everyone, those with their godlike powers and those that could change a traffic light from across the street.

But one thing that would put you on every government’s watch list was finding your soulmate. It didn’t always happen, there are just too many people for everyone to find their soulmate. But if you did, you would have your Semblance, your power ratcheted up to eleven and then some. The strength to lift doors boosted up to lifting concrete blocks, manipulating fire to creating and controlling it. Semblances were what put you up in the front row for any job that could have use for it. There were the rumours of partners with their Semblances who ran into burning buildings, were sent into war zones, that caught crashing planes. People with Semblances were gods among men, their powers reaching heights above and beyond even the strongest person on their own.

Semblances didn’t fix everything though. Racism was still rampant, riots only exacerbated by the powers wielded by both sides. Faunus might be equal in power, but they weren’t equal as people. Wars were greater and bloodier than ever, casualties reaching into the thousands with every battle. Society held a special place for those with Semblances. These hunters would be revered by the people, or hated. Hunters had many enemies, from jealousy to revenge, people wanted them to suffer for being better. The world outside the major cities were chaos, the strongest taking control of everything, powers being flung around in large gang wars that would tear up streets and homes.

The average person didn’t worry about any of that. The average person would only think of their own life and their own powers. And maybe even meeting their soulmate. But the average person couldn’t run up walls or absorb explosions. And Jaune?

Well, Jaune’s power wasn’t exactly the most useful.

 

Groaning, Jaune rolled out of bed to flop unceremoniously onto the floor, limbs splayed out in a lazy fashion. His cheek was pressing down into the soft, warm carpet and he could feel himself slowly get lulled back down into the depths of sleep. But he couldn’t let himself. Suppressing a sigh, Jaune scrambled to his feet, using both arms to push up from his resting position. Great, another day of school.

Beacon was great, don’t get him wrong. It’s just that he seemed to fall so far behind everyone else with their amazingly cool powers. Not to mention the fact that academically he was dropping behind in marks. Blake and Ren were a great help, trying to teach him as much as they could as easily as they could. And Ruby chipped in too, assisting with his mech and tech building assignments, though being a prodigy clearly had its benefits. Lunch times were… interesting. With Blake and Yang vanishing to random places, Ren trying to stop Nora from sticking knives into electrical sockets and Ruby trying her very best to make every lunchtime the new best lunchtime ever.

But sometimes he regretted accepting Ozpin’s invitation to join the school. When it had arrived, he had jumped at the chance, eagerly seizing the opportunity to achieve all his dreams in one foul swoop, completely discarding the fact that he never trained for the level required at the school, Ozpin having to personally step in to allow him to continue past his first month. Sure, Glynda had a use for his power, but he wasn’t capable of doing everything she wanted, his power flagging out after focusing on it for too long or sometimes just activating sporadically with no real off switch.

All in all, Jaune didn’t really understand why Ozpin was keeping him around. Maybe it was for some comedic relief in contrast to his overly serious classmates. Hurriedly yanking on any cleanish clothes he could find, uncaring of how correctly they were applied, or the state they were in. Surprisingly, he managed to make it out of his room in a pair of jeans and a black hoodie, stumbling down the hall and bouncing off the walls as he shoved his left leg down into the jeans, zipping it up and buttoning it once he accomplished his goal. Jaune stretched out with his arms, a yawn shaking his entire body while he languidly walked into the dining room, only his mother awaiting him.

“Smile,” Juniper said as she caught his glumly tired look. “I’m sure today will be a great day!”

Despite himself, Jaune couldn’t help but smile at her optimistic words. He knew it wasn’t her fault, that her power was passively on all the time, but sometimes it felt a bit manipulative, almost being forced to feel better. Other parents had often asked her how she had controlled eight children at once, she’d always just make up some cryptic comment and pass it off as luck. But Jaune knew. There was always a slight difference between actual happiness and his mother’s Charm, but sometimes it was close enough to be the real deal, especially to those that didn’t know what she was doing. _‘If she found her soulmate, she could rule the world’_ , Jaune mused to himself with a grin.

Shrugging in an uncoordinated manner, Jaune snagged a final slice of toast from presumably what was once a grand pile, reduced to nought but crumbs. It must have been saved for him. He threw a quick grin to her before moving around the table to give her a hug. In her arms, he could feel some happiness and warmth flow into his aching limbs before Juniper released him and he rushed about to grab everything he’d need before heading for the front door. He sent a hurried goodbye to his mom before heading out to the world, just barely catching her last words.

“Goodbye! Have a nice day!”

 

Walks to school were rarely eventful, as no one really felt the need to show off their powers, particularly in the nice neighbourhood they were in. Of course, Jaune had heard stories of people going out of their way to make themselves look like the hero, even creating bad situations in the first place. But walking to school alone with his power didn’t really give any opportunities to play himself up, not that he’d ever want to draw more attention to himself.

The walk had some nice sights presented to him, but the repetition every day made Jaune dulled to the rest of the world, at the very least while walking down the same five streets day in day out. Beacon required its students to attend even on weekends, though they were merciful enough to shorten the amount of time that was compulsory on those days. But Beacon had a massive turnover of students, late teenagers and early twenty year olds being pumped through the school at an alarming rate, so Jaune often found himself staying late after classes to cram as much learning and studying in as physically possible, his friends always offering to join him and help out where they could. As much as he appreciated the assistance, he also wanted to be able to do it himself, to point at something and truthfully say that he did it on his own. But that just wasn’t possible yet.

Someone shot over his head, flying at a low altitude for reduced chance of getting smacked in the face with some kind of insect or bird. They were wearing one of those new Atlas flight suits, fully covered from head to toe with a protective, black, flexible material that allowed for full range of motion while providing a layer of defence against any issues that could crop up from flying. Ranging from temperature to aeroplanes to anti-flying powers. Atlas, while one of the last to fully accept powers, was taking the greatest and fastest leaps to accommodate all powers, though there were the various heads of businesses and governments that only use powers to further their own personal causes.

The flier stopped in mid-air when they noticed him watching them, turning about to face him. Even though he couldn’t see through the darkened motorcycle helmet-esque gear, he got the fairly clear message that they were smiling at him, waving down to him. Jaune waved back up at them and was rewarded with a thumbs up.

A thin forearm swiftly snuck around his throat and suddenly yanked him backwards, off-balance. He saw the flier once again give the thumbs up before continuing on flying away, cheeky bugger. The arm released him and Jaune could feel a hand on his back, pushing him back up for his own legs to support him. Jaune scowled at the grinning Blake. She never would have tried anything like that before meeting the blonde, bombshell Yang. He lunged out at her, arms catching only air as she danced outside his flailing, clone meeting his assault and fading to nothing.

Blake smirked at Jaune, tapping her foot on the ground and shaking her head with false disappointment. Her longer white coat reached down to her ankles, swaying slightly side to side in the wind. Her golden eyes glinted with mischief as she leapt backwards, a clone taking her place for only a moment. Sometimes Jaune wondered how she could perform such acts in heels, though the fact that she could suddenly gain momentum and leave clones took precedence when doubting the feasibility of actions.

Their eyes met before she looked away and he noted the dark rings beneath her eyes before she could put hair between his searching gaze and her face. Her dodge out of the way had also seemed a bit sluggish to him, though not nearly enough for him to come close to catching her for once. Blake was tired. Jaune would not let that get by without comment.

“You’re tired, Blake,” He began cautiously. “What time did you get to sleep last night?”

She shrugged, clearly not wanting to face him. “About twelve.”

“Blake.”

“Jaune,” She mimicked his tone, making sure to put on a grumpy face similar to his own.

Studying her carefully, Jaune raised an eyebrow to let her know that he absolutely didn’t believe her, crossing his arms before himself. She seemed to shift slightly beneath his gaze and he managed to catch eye contact from the very corner of her eye. Finally she relented, letting out a sigh of resignation.

“I went to bed after twelve,” She stated in a matter of fact manner.

A growl almost escaped his throat as the frustration of dealing with Blake’s stubbornness this early in the morning began to get to him. “When? Specifically. Did you go to bed?”

Blake shook her head, her black hair tossing about. She glared at him. “This isn’t an interrogation. When? Specifically. Did you get out of bed?”

Jaune pointed a finger at her, “That’s not important.”

“Why not?”

Jaune swallowed the first thing that came to mind in an attempt to formulate a comprehensible response. Thinking long and hard about it, Jaune could not think of a valid reason that Blake would be unable to turn against him as she had done with his other words.

She evidently noticed his pause and contemplation, pressing her advantage, she continued her verbal tirade. “You are not one to talk about healthy habits, Jaune. I know Beacon is difficult for you, but doing what you do, as much as you do, it’s not healthy.”

“But Miss Good-“

“But Miss Goodwitch said that it would help you with your power. She also said that it was intensive and can cause lasting damage to you if you keep trying all the time!” Blake was beginning to calm down. “I know that there are some people who can keep using their power for hours on end, or people like your mom that just leave it turned on all the time. But you aren’t those people! You can’t keep pushing yourself to your limits in a futile attempt to break past them!”

“But you can go past your limits!” Jaune pointed out, already knowing that he had lost.

“Because I have Yang!” Blake took a few deep breaths. “She lets me go so far past what I am capable of, and I do the same for her. When you find your soulmate, when you just stand near them, you can feel so much stronger, all the walls and barriers blocking off your full potential crumbling down. You just need to find your soulmate.”

Jaune scoffed, “Yeah, if.”

“When,” Blake said curtly. “Don’t be so pessimistic all the time! I’m sure you’ll find them sometime soon.”

Their conversation had occupied most of the walk to Beacon, the environment passing by in a blur of unawareness, though Jaune was sure that Blake had been paying attention to her surroundings. Jaune was always called oblivious, but he didn’t think he was that oblivious, maybe just a little denser than your average person. As they began to near the main road out in front of Beacon, Blake took her black ribbon out of her pocket and began to cover up her ears with them. Although Blake and Yang were two of the strongest people in all of Beacon (adults excluded), their Semblances being activated, she could still face racism on a daily basis like the other Faunus with less inconspicuous traits.

Blake and Yang’s Semblance being activated made them a target for all sorts of people, Ozpin in particular taking interest in their subjects and extracurricular activities. Glynda held a special class for everyone who’s Semblance has been activated, a compulsory one focusing on bettering both their abilities and their outlook on the world. Beacon being very conscious of every super powered individual sent into the world, particularly those who super powered by the standards of a society filled to the brim of powers. If Blake and Yang were the most controversial pair of soulmates, then the most well-known would be Ren and Nora.

No one knew or remembered when the two orphans first met, no one except the two themselves. Similarly to Blake and Yang, one of them had a more evasive Semblance while the other brought the brunt of the force. Ren could stop living creatures from focusing on him. It wasn’t invisibility, it forced their brains to just scan over him without much thought, allowing him to sit in the corner of rooms until he’s forgotten to glean important information, a habit that lead to Jaune compulsively checking behind his back and around himself. When around his soulmate, however, Ren could make you not look at him, turning himself into visual oil, just slipping sight off of himself and forcing people to forget him. He could also apply this to others nearby him, albeit to a weaker effect, letting him somewhat hide Nora whenever he possessed the boost. But covering someone else exhausted Ren, leading to his Semblance failing after a few minutes, however, Nora seemed to be the exception, as hiding her led to no ill effects to Ren.

Nora had one of the Semblances that could end up putting you on the front lines, if not for her personality. Absorbing electricity was a fairly utilitarian power, being used for downed power lines or to guard criminals who could project electricity, but Nora could take that energy that she absorbs from the electricity to apply to her own body. Even this was fairly normal by power standards, but once she gets near Ren, her power reaches ridiculous levels. Absorbing electricity without limit, storing the energy without having to instantly expunge it like normal, sending the energy into her body to make her faster, stronger and tougher and even being able to project weak electric attacks with her body, far weaker that those that can manipulate electricity can perform, but when coupled with her increased strength, speed, durability and stamina, she could destroy buildings with impunity.

Together, Ren and Nora were an unstoppable fighting force, perfectly capable of infiltrating anywhere that relies on human or Faunus guards and powerful enough to bring the entire building down from within. The power of Semblances truly was insane, as Ren and Nora only ranked as mid-tier power wise, with Jaune’s own power holding a solid place at ‘non-threat’ and ‘limited utility’. Hopefully his sessions with Glynda could help his power leapfrog up a few levels, as unlikely as that was. The disciplinarian was one of the most powerful people on the planet that hasn’t had their Semblance activated. Through sheer determination and tenacity, she had raised her telekinesis to never before seen levels outside of Semblances, becoming a high-level Gamma.

Perhaps Jaune would never get his shit-tier power up that far, but maybe he could make himself powerful enough to be useful in some well-paying job, as it stands, his power was simply outclassed by similar powers, ones with more flexibility and strength. Blake would be able to find a high-paying job easily, her skills, intelligence and Semblance allowing her to perform miraculous tasks that would be nigh impossible for almost anyone. Ruby’s super speed was fairly useful, but even with her amazing speed, it came with detriments like attention span issues and extremely fast metabolism, leading to her having to eat more while not gaining any weight. There was also the issue that while she was faster than most other speedsters when ignoring any Semblances, she also had far less turning and stopping control. Needing over twenty metres to slow down from top speed safely.

Jaune was quite glad that his power didn’t really have any obvious downsides besides the fact that it could have been better. There was a story on the news the previous week of a man who was capable of turning completely into a gas, a newly discovered power, but his bones were hollow and muscles thin from his time spent as another state of matter and while he was in his normal form he had been hit with a stray ball from a nearby tennis game. The ball was travelling at speeds that wouldn’t even have concussed a normal person but it snapped through his neck and killed him. It was these kinds of stories that made Jaune thankful that he didn’t have a detrimental power, or at least a more detrimental power.

“Jaune, you’ve just got to stop worrying about your power all the time,” Blake requested calmly. “Lambda isn’t that bad, your power isn’t useless.”

“I know. It’s just that, when you have people who can read minds, or people that can tear down buildings why would you need anyone with a power like mine?” Jaune had taken to simply kicking a rock along the road, sending it scattering for a few paces before catching up to it to repeat the cycle.

“Jaune.” He made sure to look her in the eyes, he could see the concern etched onto her face, he didn’t deserve the friends he had. “You’ll be fine. I know that.”

Jaune sighed, unable to shake her of her conviction, however wrong she may be. “Thanks Blake. You’re a good friend.” He gave her a tired smile, catching the twitching in the corners of her mouth that betrayed the serious look on her face. Moving to pat her on the back, Jaune found that his arm couldn’t move, being held in place by a veritable band of steel. “Nora.”

“Jauney, how did you know it was me?” Nora exclaimed, leaping into his field of view to throw her arms wide in question.

“Because I only know two super-strong friends. And Yang wouldn’t do that to me.” Jaune counted off on his fingers, grinning at Nora the entire time.

Blake’s bow twitched slightly, she raised her amber eyes to his face, a smirk overcoming her features, “Are you sure of that?”

Placing a hand to his chin to stroke his imaginary beard, Jaune pretended to put some thought into it before nodding his head vigorously, “Of course I’m sure. We have a deal, and Yang would never back down on her word.”

“Do I detect the undertone of blackmail in there?”

“No…” Jaune trailed off deliberately.

“Yeah, because I have two sets of ears, and I’m faaaairly sure I can hear the blackmail,” Blake emphasised by pointing to her bow with her right hand.

“Ooooh.” Nora leapt up onto her tippy toes to lean in as close as feasibly possible to the girl’s bow. “I’ve always wondered about that! Can you hear twice as better?”

“I don’t think that’s proper English,” Blake commented.

But the shorter, pink girl pointed a finger at her face, leading the Faunus to take a step back. “Don’t you try to evade the question! This is a serious investigation! Right, Jauney?”

Jaune tried to process the conversation through his brain, it was taking quite some work. Though he supposed he wouldn’t really need it for Port’s class later that morning. “I- ummm… Sure?”

“See! And Jaune would never dare lie to me! Interrogator, bring forth the water soaker!”

“Nora,” The placating voice of Ren called out from behind the trio. “What have I told you about using people’s weaknesses in an interrogation?”

“That it would make them spill the beans faster? I’ve been meaning to ask, what kind of beans do you think our targets will be carrying? Coffee? Lima? _Magic_?” Nora had instantly gravitated to Ren’s side the instant he had made his presence known, and it was likely that he had been there unnoticed for some while for that reason. She had already latched onto his neck with both arms, careful not to break it by accident as she was sometimes prone to do to metal poles she swung on. Those poor monkey bars, they never knew what hit them.

Ren raised an amused eyebrow, “Nora, slow down.”

She huffed, an exaggerated grumpy frown manifesting over her usual hyperactive smirk. “Fine. But only because _you_ asked me.”

Ren blinked slowly, a grin shyly half-appearing onto his face, but he stifled a yawn with his right forearm covering his mouth from view. It seemed as though everyone was tired these days, Jaune mused to himself silently. Maybe not everyone, he added with a smirk, gazing over to where Nora was hastily climbing up a nearby utility pole to reach the power lines overhead. She was scaling the wooden pole swiftly with her arms and legs splayed out like a spider climbing a wall. She had reached out and almost touched the lines when Ren called out to her from the base of the pole.

“Nora, get down. It isn’t safe.” He was cupping his mouth with his hands on either side, to help it reach her through the winds.

“Whaddaya talking about? I’m perfectly fine!” Nora shouted back down to him, swaying precariously with only one hand holding onto the wooden structure, the other one coming to shade her eyes so she could gaze out to the horizon intimidatingly.

Jaune could hear Ren’s sigh from where he and Blake were standing a few metres away, watching the entire debacle go down. “I’m not talking about safe for you. Remember Goodwitch’s warnings about absorbing too much power?”

“Yeah. That I could punch through several buildings with you nearby!”

“What? No, not that part!”

“Ooooooh, the part about not being allowed to zap people ‘just for fun’. Don’t worry Renny, I would never take advantage of my powers like that!”

Jaune glanced to the side when Blake slipped off, her clone remaining for just a second before dissolving back into shadows. He sighed, shaking his head, sometimes his friends could use their powers for the most trivial of things.

“Nora, do not touch that powerline.”

Or the most ridiculous of things.

“But why noooot?” Nora whined from her perch atop the pole, having scampered her way up to sit on the top while Jaune was distracted. The way her legs were swinging out in the open air below her reminded Jaune of when he and his sisters were younger and would sit in their father’s tall chair to get a feel for what it was like to be an actual adult.

“Because you might cause a blackout, and we’ve already used our allowance this month!” There was a terse edge to his voice as Nora’s hand inched closer and closer to the powerline, some electricity already detecting her presence and making the small leap to her outstretched fingers. Her hand was beginning to take on the tell-tale pink glow that it always did whenever she had access to a power source. “Nora,” Ren repeated chidingly.

“Miss Valkyrie!”

Just hearing that voice almost froze Jaune’s muscles to stone, a cold beginning to trickle deep into his muscles. Turning slowly to look at the deputy who had emerged from the school, likely coaxed out by the power fluctuations caused by Nora’s Semblance or by the rowdy crowd that had gathered around them, ready to watch the hyperactive girl absorb the entire power grid for blocks. Glynda Goodwitch was wearing her usual outfit, a tight-buttoned white blouse with a black pencil skirt, her hair caught up in her trademark bun. Her glasses were slightly lower on her nose, exposing her striking green eyes, filled with anger. Jaune was overjoyed that, for once, her anger was directed at someone else.

Raising a hand up to point at a dissatisfied Nora, the sea of onlookers parted before her threatening fingers, Glynda glared at the short girl on the pole and raised her two fingers to the sky. Nora was suddenly lifted from the top of the pole, still sitting, and looking as though she was sat in an invisible, uncomfortable, wooden chair. She was making sure to scowl at Goodwitch the entire way down from her escapade, Ren only sighing and stepping forward to catch her out of mid-air. The teacher gently lowered the troublemaker into her boyfriend’s awaiting arms, giving them one final glare before turning to return to the school, no doubt letting the punishment wait until they were both in her class at the end of the day.

Jaune looked to the pair standing in the middle of the pathway, Nora had begun giggling and swinging her legs again, humming a happy tune and looping her arms around behind Ren’s neck. Suddenly it was as if Jaune didn’t want to look at them anymore, his gaze constantly slipping from them and his mind wandering. Ren was using his Semblance to escape the public eye. Once Jaune turned away from them to seek out Blake, he found it increasingly difficult to remember what he was thinking previously or what he had been looking at.

There was a ‘pop’ and abruptly a student manifested beside Jaune, collapsing to the ground the instant they appeared. Jaune had to refrain himself from having a heart attack, had his reflexes been as good as Blake’s or even Ruby then he may have punched the poor guy in the face. As it stands, Jaune leapt backwards, letting out a shrill scream in shock and fear, immediately clamping his mouth shut to stop any more of the embarrassing noise escaping. Miss Goodwitch immediately spun on her heel to check what the disturbance was and whether it was Jaune being touched on the back of the neck by a student whose hands were coated in ice again. The second she saw the buckled student, Glynda pointed two of her right hand’s fingers at the poor boy and lift him up into the air, carrying him along in her wake as she took a detour to the small on-site hospital that Beacon had found a need for. Never a moment’s rest.

Jaune could hear the sigh even as she walked away, the force of it flattening the grass nearby accidentally. He himself was getting a bit tired of the endless rigmarole of classes and people exploiting their powers for fun while he was sitting there getting more and more uncomfortable every minute. There was the sound of gushing water and Jaune instinctively reached for his umbrella, only just now noticing that he had forgotten it. A tall girl flew overhead, water shooting down from her hands to propel her off the ground, the water that collided with whatever unfortunate location that found itself below her collated together into balls that floated back up through the air to re-join the veritable waterfall drenching everyone beneath her.

Shying away from the water to keep himself dry, Jaune stumbled backwards as quickly as he could without guaranteed injury, flailing his arms up before his face to protect himself from the splashback of the water from the ground. His makeshift shield was rather ineffective and he spluttered as cold water splashed into his face, only for it to peel itself off of him to form a ball that lifted back up into the sky, leaving him completely dry once more. People don’t really use their powers against other people if they couldn’t undo the damage rather swiftly, otherwise they would have to explain their actions to several angry super-powered people. But still, the cold water had not felt nice.

From the corner of his vision he noticed a drenched boy with soaked red hair and a scowl on his face nudge one of the other students next to him and jerk his head in the direction of the flying girl. The larger student sighed, shaking his head as he walked closer to her, getting completely saturated with endless waves of water, he raised a muscled arm to point up at her and suddenly all the water bubbles floating through the air dropped and the constant pressure of her water jetpack ceased. Her eyes widened in shock as she fell from her position in the sky, her power failing her. A lanky girl with long flowing black hair, standing head and shoulders above all the other students, took one glance at the falling girl, sighed, and leapt through the air, catching her as she fell. The jumper landed a fair distance away, the force in the jump taking them both across the road and away from the nullifier. Once they landed, the saviour placed the girl gently on her feet before turning to the boys, eyes furious.

Jaune blinked himself out of his frozen state to turn away from the time bomb ready to explode, aware of how deadly any fights could become and unwilling to spend another day in the hospital under the ‘watchful’ eye of the staff. Ren and Nora were nowhere to be found, though that was to be expected most days. He slowly made his way through the archway entrance that Beacon had, shifting out of the way of two guys hurrying in the other direction, as they passed him, Jaune noticed one of them carefully avoiding all of the puddles on the ground while the other went out of his way to perform flips and handstands, bounding across the ground.

The blond boy turned away from them, trying to clear the fog of exhaustion that had temporarily abated after he was splashed with ice-cold water. Walking down the wide paved pathway that led up into the main hall of the school, Jaune listened to the conversations that others were having around him, most of it was dull but there was one conversation that piqued his interest.

“Did you do your homework for Power Studies?”

“Yeah man, of course I did.”

Jaune’s eyebrow lifted at the obvious lie, tuning back into the conversation.

“Okay then, recite it to me.”

“Ummm… Well there was this strapping young lad who-”

“Stop! Stop! Stop! I get enough of his fucking stories in class already, what was the actual homework?”

“I think it was something about the history of powers.”

“Yeah, and?”

“I dunno, it started a few hundred years back and no one knows why. I think there was something about the most powerful person back then was only a modern day Eta, but to the normal people they were gods.”

Jaune recalled his own lessons of power history, somehow Port could make anything boring. Many people treated it as a free period as he was often to absorbed in his own stories to even notice his students sleeping or talking, not even so much as stopping after that one time someone decided to paint the entire ceiling black mid-class. That was a rather entertaining lesson in teleportation, super-speed, walking on walls and teamwork. Maybe that was the real aim of the class?

“It wasn’t until recently when more and more Mu-Gammas were discovered. And one of those natural Gammas was a muscly young man named Peter P-”

“You can stop right there. Also, you completely forgot about the first Upsilon leader and the first ever Omega.”

Jaune turned his ears off of their conversation, already getting a headache from the power rankings and history. He always needed a chart and a graph before him if he wanted to remember anything about them, let alone perform anything more than terrible in any history theory tests. Oobleck may be lenient and want for his students to all perform well, but none of that moral support could help Jaune when it came to remembering if Ozpin’s predecessor was an Alpha or a Beta. Hell, Jaune only barely remembered that he himself was a Lambda and even that had taken coaching from Ren and Blake for him to memorise what that meant.

Jaune made to leave when he caught the tail-end of their conversation.

“I can’t believe how lucky we are to miss out on the new syllabus! The new years have to learn all about Semblances and all that crap.”

“Shhh. You never know if the teachers have super-hearing or something ridiculous to spy on us!”

“Why would they spy on us? What would they even learn? That we’re all lazy assholes? I'm sure they know that already. Besides, I’m positive that instead of your stupid super-hearing theory, the teachers can actually read minds!”

“Shut the fuck up.”

On that note, the two had left his sphere of hearing, leaving Jaune to ponder their words. He was in a lower year than them, he was sure of that. This meant that he would have to learn all about Semblances and soulmates, most likely from Oobleck, who was going to switch jobs with Port, to keep things ‘fresh’. That would be an ordeal, but an ordeal that he didn’t have to deal with at the moment.

“Hey Jaune!”

He turned to face the boisterous voice, coming face to face with Yang Xiao Long, who was grinning maniacally, arms crossed before her. Jaune gulped, glancing around for Blake, who was - surprise surprise - nowhere to be found. Maybe Yang had forgotten the incident with the soldering iron and her hair, though that was highly unlikely, as she appeared to have the memory of a Goliath when it came to her hair. Jaune noted just how far her smile reached up her face, stopping long short of her reddening eyes and her body language was far too cheery, a disturbing contrast to the rage he had almost incurred.

“Yes, Yang?” He asked hesitantly, his voice wavering somewhat.

She tilted her head first to the right then to the left, allowing the cracks of her neck consume the entire conversation, once she was done, Yang resorted to cracking her knuckles. Jaune began to whimper and back off, slowly placing one foot behind the other, Yang carefully following him with her red eyes narrowing with every step he took away.

“You’re not still mad, are you Yang?”

“Of course not.”

He could practically taste the lie in her response, wishing for Blake to appear, or Ren, or Ruby, or even Nora. Mouth drying up, Jaune turned tail and began to run as fast as he could, legs stretching out and entire body focused into escaping from the blonde pursuing him, letting out a small ‘eep’ as he fled before her fiery wrath.

“I’m sorry Yang!”

“Not until I catch up!”

 

“Ah yes, that is the bell. Now all of you must remember to complete all of the homework assignments that I have assigned you! I expect your ten page reports reporting that which you have studied on my desk by next Thursday, that seems reasonable enough. Dismissed!”

The second that the bell went Oobleck was out of the door in a blur, leaving nothing but scattered notes and extremely confused and stressed students in his wake. Jaune groaned, not even Oobleck’s moderate super speed could maintain his interest in the links between genetics and powers, all he had learnt in the past few weeks of lessons amounting to little more than an hour of online research. That was not entirely through the fault of the Doctor however, as while his lessons were far too fast paced for most people, all of the classes were compact and filled to the brim with information. Each sentence that the professor gave containing useful information, ignoring all of the tautology and redundancy.

It was the afternoon, most classes having come to an end, and now all of them would be free to leave. That is if Jaune hadn’t had the bright idea to offer to help Goodwitch after classes, in a move that made him simultaneously lose well over five hours each week to helping out and made him the target of a few select (for lack of a better word) dickheads who didn’t appreciate his aid to the strict disciplinarian. But he needed the extra work.

It was both a requirement that had been put forth by a certain female teacher as a condition for his remaining in the school, a condition that both he and the headmaster had leapt at as though their lives depended on it, and it was a way for him to work on improving his power, affectionately dubbed Shinjitsu by Blake. To be perfectly honest, he had no idea what that word meant, only that she was willing to speak it in public.

While his assistance occasionally included filling out non-confidential paperwork (which was a rarity, worryingly so), absorbing Port’s rambunctious tales (‘rambunctious’ was a word that the man himself used to describe his stories, the go to word for everyone else was: ‘boring’) so that she wouldn’t have to and keeping an eye on Ozpin to make sure he wasn’t passing his daily coffee allotment. And while these jobs often ranged from being downright boring to the point of death all the way up to feeling ridiculously uncomfortable as he stared down the principal from across the man’s large wooden desk while the older man attempted to covertly pour himself some more coffee, it was not his usual task.

On those special days when Miss Goodwitch had given out any detentions during the day (which was unfortunately common for the majority of the school populace), Jaune would find himself plopped into the middle of a detention with all the most arrogant and annoying students that Beacon could find, being trapped into sitting by Goodwitch’s desk as he followed through her every order to the complaints of his peers.

On those bizarre occasions when he found himself on the other end of the detention, which was actually becoming less and less of a possibility, the atmosphere was so tense that to breathe too loud would mean snapping the fragile climate into thousands of tiny pieces. To say that it was awkward would be calling the universe small or Jaune unlucky. That is to say, an understatement.

Shuffling his book and all the other clutter that had found its way out of his bag, Jaune hoisted himself out of the unbearable chair, likely designed to be as uncomfortable as possible to reduce the amount of students that simply slept through lessons But as painful as the chairs were, they were stuck with an impossible task for as long as Port and Oobleck kept their personalities, teaching styles and jobs. For no one would dare fall sleep in Professor Goodwitch’s class, even if they hadn’t slept for the past 72 hours and felt like lying down and dying.

Jaune let out a small groan at the stiffness of his legs, comfortable chairs should be a human (and Faunus) right, particularly in schools where the teachers tended to drone on for hours upon hours with no apparent end. The class was swiftly emptying, most people not waiting around to meander to their next endeavour, particularly since most of the students had completed their day of schooling and were able to go home or do whatever it was that people who weren’t trapped in the school for the next hour and a half do. Jaune really had no idea, and he couldn’t ask his friends as they too all had to remain behind whilst the other went out to live their free lives.

Their little pocket of friends was often called ‘The Volunteers’, with Ruby always staying behind to train up her power to be ‘just like my uncle’, whatever that meant, Yang, Blake, Ren and Nora all chose to stay behind to practice their Semblances with Port and Oobleck (which apparently had a 50/50 chance to be fun), and Jaune himself had been to one to merit their name. Actually volunteering to stay back and help Glynda, despite everyone’s warnings not to. But it wasn’t as bad as everyone made it out to be, in fact, Jaune enjoyed his time in detention, practicing his power and learning how to hone it to the precise weapon that Glynda needed for her ~~interrogations~~ detentions.

Scanning the empty room swiftly and swinging his black bag over one shoulder, making sure to slow down long enough to slip his other arm through the opposing strap, Jaune casually walked down past the rows of desks and out the thick wooden door. Making sure to pull the door shut behind him, as Oobleck often forgot to do, with the door automatically locking when it clicked closed. The locks were especially fun when you had forgotten something and had left it inside the room before the door was locked and having to either wait until the next day, ask Professor Goodwitch for help, or find someone with a power that is rather conducive to getting inside locked rooms or stealing items through walls.

The halls were relatively empty as Jaune strode down one, turning to make his way down a set of stairs towards the ground floor. Many of the later years took the option to stay at home to learn, with all the material being sent to them, with many of the others choosing to either relocate to another school or move overseas to Atlas or Mantle. The third years had also been absent for the past few days, Professor Peach having taken them on a trip down to Vacuo to show the different cultures and to promote harmony and working together. The school was basically only overrun by the first and second years at this point, with the predicted future of almost half of the first years not making it to the second while a third of the second years won’t stay long enough to see third. Beacon truly had a swift turn-over rate.

Jaune strolled through the concrete corridor carefully to avoid stepping on the gum that had materialised in the past few hours since the cleaners had made the entire school spick and span with their powers. Sometimes Jaune was thankful that his power didn’t really shoehorn him into a particular job or skillset, but other times he was mad that the reason for the lack of forced direction was that his power was rather… exploitable. Not that the others in detention had found out yet. And Glynda was likely to make sure that they never found out.

She really was scary.

No matter, he had already volunteered and there was no turning back now. Besides, what were his other options? Spend every single afternoon with Port whilst regaled with the longest most dragged out tales not found on the internet? Chase around after Oobleck and have to pick up everything that he drops while constantly taking notes so that the good Doctor didn’t forget anything he thinks of that he believes to be gold? Or sit around with Ozpin doing whatever it is that Ozpin would make him do? What would Ozpin make him do?

Vacating his mind of that particular train-wreck of thought, Jaune cautiously opened the door to Professor Goodwitch’s room and stepped through into the detention that was already underway. Predictably, Cardin and his cronies were sitting at the front where Glynda could keep an eye on them, while the students with fewer or less frequent infractions sat around the edges, mumbling quietly amongst themselves. Jaune nodded a brief apology to Goodwitch for being a full twenty seconds late and slid into his usual spot facing the rest of the occupants, his table being placed off to the side and slightly before the teacher’s desk.

Plopping his bag full of books on the floor and resting his elbows onto the table, Jaune placed his chin into his hands, slumping in the chair. He really should remember to bring a cushion next time. Jaune briefly glanced over to Miss Goodwitch for instructions to perform during the detention, but she was still typing furiously away at her scroll, something work related, as she would never spend any of her work hours with anything different.

Jaune looked around at the rest of the classroom. All of them were familiar faces. Repeat offenders. There were the two boys from earlier this morning, along with the girl that they had downed with their powers. Nora had likely only gotten out of a detention due to the fact that she and Ren were needed for their Semblance training with Port, having gotten the short end of the stick from Yang and Blake after a lost bet that Nora and Yang had made. Goodwitch also probably found it humorously just that they spend over an hour with the boisterous, self-centred man.

Cardin and his goons were up at the front, as per usual, occasionally sending Jaune glares when they weren’t conversing under their breath and laughing. There was the blond boy also from earlier, the one who had been jumping in all of those puddles, relaxing and kicking back with his legs propped up on the table. Tapping away at her scroll with designer shades over her eyes and a dark-brown beret on her head, a second-year girl frowned down at her scroll, not giving the real world a second of attention.

The last two occupants of the room were both guys, apparently the male population of Beacon were more likely to catch the ire of Professor Goodwitch, but considering the fact that the entirety of the third year was out, a year that mostly consisted of females for some bizarre reason, the skewed ratio was probably just a one-time thing for the week. One of them also had his feet up on the table, grey metal boots resting on the dirtied and scuffed wood, silver hair hanging over the boy’s closed eyes as he sat there with headphones in. The other one was another regular, almost showing up as much as Jaune, though Jaune couldn’t find a reason why beyond a similar situation that he himself was in.

The boy was calmly sitting off to the side, separated from all the others by several desks in all directions. He was staring out the closest window with eyes that stared beyond the world and into nothing, completely dead to the world. Jaune returned to looking down at his desk. It was marred beyond belief, the entire surface of the top being covered with scrawls and drawings, most of them inappropriate, he didn’t envy the wheelbarrow that had to be used to carry the big brass balls of whoever wrote on Professor Goodwitch’s desk, or the grave that probably held their cold corpses. Jaune noticed how morbid his thoughts had become and came to the not so startling realisation that he should never be left alone to his thoughts.

Fortunately he was rescued from such a terrible fate by the teacher clearing her throat as she glared at the entire room, Jaune immediately snapped to attention and several of the other students did the same, with the exception of Cardin, the two guys from the morning and the silver-haired teen who seemed to be dozing. Jaune watched as Goodwitch seethed at the clear disrespect for her authority, fully prepared for some kind of loud bang to startle everyone into paying attention.

Miss Goodwitch did not do this however, instead she merely looked over to the boy sitting by the window, who was staring back with an eyebrow raised and head cocked to the side in question. Glynda nodded slightly, barely a twitch, and Jaune barely caught the boy’s swallow before he reached up with one hand to place his index finger over his lips. He made a shushing noise and the entire room fell silent.

Jaune could feel his throat contract to stop him from speaking, it was as if his very body was trying to refrain from making any amount of noise, with his mind joining in. The effect felt slightly like his mother’s Charm, his mind trying to trick itself into keeping silent when he didn’t really feel the need, but the boy’s power gave his mind the urge to silence himself, his body acting out his mind’s involuntary commands and freezing up his throat and stilling his entire body slightly, so as to avoid unnecessary sound production.

It was over in a second, the feeling passing shortly after the boy lowered his finger from his mouth. Jaune scanned over the room to see if anyone else had been affected. Goodwitch, predictably, looked completely at ease, probably prepared for the effects to counteract them. The second year looked slightly surprised, unable to hide it beneath a veneer of boredom, gently placing her scroll into her black handbag at her feet. Cardin was shocked, mouth trapped in a firm line, completely unmoving.

The indolent silver-boy opened his eyes slowly, reaching up to pull out his headphones with one hand to hold them before his grey eyes, lazily looking them over before sighing and placing them onto the tabletop before him, letting the cords trail up into the top of his shirt and back down towards his pockets. As for the boy who had used his power to quiet them all down, he slumped over his desk, plopping his head onto the crook of his arm and rolling it over so he could rest it on its side. He appeared as if he had been burning the candle at both ends, with eyes shadowed in dark rings and his arms hanging over the edge of the desk, green eyes flickering around the room sluggishly.

Glynda nodded her thanks to the boy and stood up before the class, letting one hand rest on her stack of paperwork to signal to Jaune that he was going to get some practice in. She walked around the wide wooden table that she was situated behind to stand before it and lean against it, looking at the assembled troublemaker. Jaune followed her attentively, curious as to how he would help this time around.

The disciplinarian gestured towards Cardin who was silently observing her and dreading to be picked first. “Cardin,” She began, eyes flickering briefly over to Jaune. “Were you affected by Acier’s Tranquility?” Starting off easy, to set a benchmark for the detention.

Jaune focused on Cardin, a faint white glow amassing in the centre of his chest, far too faint to be noticed by anyone who didn’t have some kind of power that enhanced vision or detection. Cardin didn’t even think on his answer, knowing better than to leave Professor Goodwitch waiting, letting out a quick ‘yes’ in response to her question. Jaune quickly tapped one finger on the table, letting Goodwitch know that the test was successful.

She moved on to her next target, leaving Cardin somewhat confused in her wake. “Malack, you are here because you bent to the will of another student and used your power against another person with malicious intent, correct?”

The large boy from the morning who had nullified a power grinned at the girl who he had de-powered and said, “Yeah.”

Professor Goodwitch frowned at the admittance and the following tap, unhappy with his attitude towards harming another person. “Why?”

“Because I knew that someone would play the hero and save her. Also, she did get us cold and wet, so I figured it was only fair,” Came his response, a solitary tap following his two statements.

The teacher moved on, looking back towards Cardin’s little squad. “Russel, do you remember what we learnt in class today?” One final test.

The boy in question almost flinched at the question, gulping swiftly and saying, “Yes.”

Two taps. Glynda stopped herself from glaring at the terrified boy, instead standing up and moving over towards Jaune imperceptibly had you not been looking for it. She gazed over the class and called out for the second year girl. “Coco, is Ozpin a good headmaster?”

Coco’s eyes shifted slightly as her eyebrows barely inched towards each other, looking for the trap hidden within the question. “Uh… Yes?”

Jaune tapped once against the desk, carefully looking towards the door and away from the professor. Goodwitch blinked before walking back around her desk to sit in her chair, vaguely gesturing with her hand for the inhabitants of the detention to occupy themselves with work of some kind. The young Arc stood up from his chair and walked over to Glynda’s side, careful to let his eyes stray around her cluttered desk and not anywhere else on her figure.

From the corner of his eye, he caught a few of the troublemakers follow his movement, the boy with silver hair staring at him from beneath his hair, earbuds already back in his ears. Coco was also watching him, her eyes narrowed at him over the top of her glasses, scanning him up and down with the tiniest of frowns on her face. The final student observing him was Acier, the exhausted boy raising his head off the table for just long enough to raise a hand in Jaune’s direction and send him a tired smile.

A scraping noise met Jaune’s ears and he glanced behind him to see a chair pull itself over to him and settle down behind him, he looked curiously to Miss Goodwitch, who lifted a hand and knocked him down into the seat. She flicked her hand forward and the chair lurched beneath him, pulling him forward and up to the edge of the desk where they could talk easily without anyone overhearing them. Motioning for Jaune to begin, Goodwitch slid over some papers to Jaune with a solitary finger, followed by a floating pen.

Shrugging at the overt display of power, Jaune grabbed the pen out of the air and began to scan through the sheets of paper before him to see what order he should complete them in. As always they were in impeccable order and Jaune started with the one on top, speaking quietly to the teacher beside him as he started.

“I think it worked pretty well today, better than most days,” Jaune warily whispered, leafing through the corner of the stack of paper in thought. “I think I got all of them correct.”

Professor Goodwitch’s green eyes flashed over to watch him for a second, returning to the paperwork in front of her as two pens simultaneously floated before her, filling it out. “Perhaps you did. But you did not stop to think of issues and loopholes.”

Jaune turned to her with a confused expression clear on his face. “What do you mean?” He asked curiously. “I thought the questions were pretty simple today.”

The ghost of a smile graced the blonde’s face as she thought of something humorous. “They were,” She commented, indifferent. “I believe that you felt it correctly. That you detected the level of truth from every answer. But you must always take into account the fact that if someone believes that they are telling the truth, then you’ll only detect it as true, whether or not the statement is actually true.”

“Yeah, I guess…” Jaune frowned down at his hands, staring through the sheaf of papers that lay almost untouched beneath his grasp. And there was one of the biggest issues with his power. He may be able to tell if someone thinks if they’re telling a truth or a lie, but he couldn’t actually detect if the statement itself was true or not. Jaune thought for a second upon her words, eyes clouding with confusion when he thought about the choice of words. “Wait. Which answer do you think was wrong?”

The teacher cleared her throat uncomfortably as she pointedly ignored his question, instead focusing on the two pens floating over the papers. Which brought him to _the_ biggest issue with his ‘truth-detecting’ power. If people didn’t want to talk, then he wouldn’t be able to detect the truth, because there is nothing to use to detect.

It was this big reason that led to governments and other programs or factions dropping the idea of using truth-detectors when agents and even criminals were learning or being taught to remain silent in every interrogation, or to give the vaguest answers possible that would provide no information whether or not it was detected as true. Heck, you could talk about the weather and your interrogator could do nothing about it, having to detect the truth that: yes, it is cloudy today. Nowadays that position was taken up by mind-readers or even just pain-inflictors, with information being far more likely to be extracted with those methods than with truth-detecting.

It was why Jaune and Glynda couldn’t openly talk about why he was there and had to use the signal of the taps. Because if the others found out about it, then they’d never be able to use it to find out important facts or details from anybody, as they’d just be able to refuse to answer or talk nonsensical bullshit like a lunatic. Jaune’s power was only ever useful with the element of surprise, and with the new law that General Ironwood had fervently pushed through the council for every citizen’s power to be found out and recorded, to discover any potential threats or assets and to have a record of the different users of powers to be able to locate criminals based on their powers alone, now his power wasn’t a surprise to anyone.

Jaune stared down at his hands, they still had the faintest of white glows, his power was still activated and likely would stay that way for the next few hours. His power incontinence was another barrier for finding a job, lacking control over his power and sometimes detecting the truth whether he wanted to or not, or, on the flipside, being unable to activate his power when he needed it. Jaune placed the pen down onto the paper, he wasn’t getting any work done anyway, the words and letters beginning to blur together into an impenetrable wall of text.

He was brought out of his reverie by the sound of someone knocking at the door, Jaune looked over to the door, seeing a flash of red through the window before the door was opened by Glynda, who was gazing over to the door with her two pens stilling themselves in mid-air. Jaune grinned as Ruby shyly shuffled in through the door and walked over to them, avoiding any eye contact with anyone else in the room. She reached their desk just as Miss Goodwitch’s scroll pinged with a message and the teacher held up one hand to Ruby as she quickly scanned the message.

_‘Has Miss Rose made it yet? She tends to push all of the buttons on the elevator._

_-Ozpin’_

She placed the scroll down and looked at Ruby expectantly, awaiting the headmaster’s message that required a student to be relayed. Ruby looked down at her feet, shuffling her legs around slightly and feeling slightly afraid that she had interrupted anything important. Raising her head to meet the deputy’s gaze, Ruby started and her silver eyes widened a bit in shock.

“Oh sorry, it’s just that Ozpin wanted to see me and pulled me out of the warmups and then we talked and now he wants to see Jaune for some reason and he wouldn’t tell me but it was apparently important and he wants Jaune to go to his office as soon as possible,” Ruby blurted out, the words melding together somewhat in their rush to exit her mouth.

Jaune blinked at the veritable tidal wave of noise that assaulted him, looking over at Miss Goodwitch to see if she had gotten all of that. Apparently she had as she nodded along to Ruby before looking at Jaune and saying, “Well Jaune, it appears as if Ozpin needs to see you, you’d best be off. We can continue your practice another time.”

“Ummm… Right. Of course.” Jaune fumbled with the chair behind him as he stood up, doing the same with his words. “I’ll umm... go then. Thanks Miss Goodwitch.”

She raised an eyebrow at his as he stumbled back towards his table, almost tripping over on a pulled out chair. Even Ruby appeared to be embarrassed by his spectacular performance in walking. The hooded girl skipped after him and out the door, standing just outside to wait for him as he snatched all of his miscellaneous stuff and practically ran out the door, shouting another thanks to the blonde teacher and shutting the door behind him.

Jaune almost tumbled out the door after Ruby, who was patiently waiting outside the door with her signature red cape hanging behind her. Her bag was missing from her attire and Jaune could only assume that meant that she was taken out of her running warmups after already starting. She began to walk towards Ozpin’s office, a seven story building that was taller than all the other buildings in the school, with the entire top floor being dedicated to the headmaster’s office. To be honest it was rather bizarre for a school to have a veritable tower in the centre of campus, but Beacon wasn’t exactly normal.

Jaune caught up to walk side by side with her, mulling over his conversation with Miss Goodwitch moments prior. Ruby leapt forward as she swung her arms up in the air and called out to Jaune as they walked.

“Hey Jaune, do you know why Ozpin wants to see you?” She asked curiously as she kicked her feet at the ground, not dislodging the concrete even slightly.

The boy shrugged, merely assuming that the meeting was another of Ozpin’s check-ups on Jaune to see how he’s been going and if he could handle the material. But those could always be saved for another day and not during one of his training sessions with Professor Goodwitch, meaning that whatever Ozpin needed him for was clearly urgent or time-reliant.

“I guess he’ll explain it to you himself when you get there,” Ruby continued, not content to let the silence stew.

Jaune glanced over to her, realising that she was just trying to get rid of the silence and she could just as easily take a shortcut and leave him to get to Ozpin’s office alone. “I suppose so. So Ruby, what was your meeting about?”

The shorter girl started, her eyes shifting upwards slightly as she recalled what her conversation with the headmaster had been about. “Well… He wanted to know about how you were going on.” Jaune rolled his eyes, now Ozpin was asking his friends? “And then he asked how my Anemos is going along so I explained how I was training almost every single day to get faster.” Jaune nodded, Ozpin always tried to keep up to date with how developed everyone’s powers were. “Then he asked about my race today…” She trailed off, her voice disappearing as her head faded back into the past.

“Ruby.”

Ruby Rose stared into space as she walked mechanically, thinking about what Ozpin had gone over.

“Uhhh… Ruby?”

Jaune reached out with one arm to yank her to the side and out of the way of a metal pole that she was about to walk into. She didn’t even react, continuing to walk forwards. With a sigh, Jaune tried again.

“Ruby!”

The redhead jumped, blinking herself back into reality. “Huh? Yeah? I’m- I’m- I’m fine.” Jaune held back a groan as she grinned at him, scratching the back of her neck with her left hand. “As I was saying, Ozpin kinda got weird and obsessive, telling me how important it was for me to try my best.”

Jaune’s eyebrows came together in confusion. “You mean he wanted you to win?”

“No not really. He just made me promise to try my best. Then he stared off into space, like he wasn’t really there.” The blond rolled his eyes, knowing how that felt. “Then he took a sip of his coffee cup and told me ‘that was all’ and asked me to go get you to bring you back for some kind of meeting or interview.” Jaune nodded along with her recount, it definitely sounded like Ozpin, always cryptic. “And then as I was leaving, he was all like ‘and Miss Rose’.” Jaune smiled at her impression of Ozpin, it was like a young child pretending to be an adult. “’Do make sure that you aren’t late.’ then I was off and came down to find you and I looked in through the window and then-“

“You can stop, I was there for that part,” Jaune exclaimed, holding his hands out to prevent his friend from reciting their entire conversation and getting into some kind of horrible infinite loop of annoying.

“Oh! Umm right. Sorry.” Ruby looked down at her feet, a smile creeping onto her face that let Jaune know that she was deliberately doing that. Not that she needed to, as he’d detected the lie in her words. But the rest of her story was true, as true as it could be coming through the meat grinder like that.

Jaune sighed and opened his scroll, reading the time as the white numbers glowed up at him. “Wait a second. Didn’t Ozpin tell you not to be late?” Jaune asked. Ruby nodded in assent, humming cheerfully to herself. “And doesn’t your race start in less than five minutes?” Jaune continued, watching Ruby as she nodded happily along with him before her eyes shot wide open and she turned to him and opened her mouth.

“Sorry Jaune, but I have this thing and I have to go and bye!” Ruby yelled before spinning on her heel for the nearest shortcut and vanishing in a cloud of rose petals, the red petals floating down to the ground in her wake.

Jaune smiled to himself. Always the way with Ruby. He shook his head and continued down through the empty halls of the school, grinning the entire way. He should probably hurry up though, Ozpin likely required his presence for something and Ruby’s little outburst had cost him a little of his precious time. Jogging now, Jaune whistled jauntily to himself as his feet pumped below him and he looked around the school.

There was a loud crash nearby and Jaune stopped in his tracks, whistling cutting off abruptly. There were a few muffled curses coming from the direction of the crash and Jaune investigated, cautiously stepping down one of the side halls leading to Professor Port’s room. He turned the dark corner, coming face to face with a grizzled older man with stubble covering his chin. Ordinarily Jaune would never notice such minute details, however this time was an exception as he almost walked directly into the man’s chest. Ordinarily Jaune was a brave man, and would never think to squeal in fright. However, this time was an exception as he came face to face with red eyes that glared at him and the detectable scent of liquor.

“Kid, watch where you’re going,” The man said in a husky voice that sliced through the quiet that followed Jaune’s scream.

He seemed to sway slightly to the side as he pulled a flask out of his pocket and took a swig from it, uncapping it and tipping it upwards in one swift motion. The smell of alcohol hit Jaune and he almost coughed at the powerful odour that hit him, staggering back from the taller man. The lanky man followed after him, replacing his silver flask back into its rightful place in his pocket.

“Let me get straight to the point,” The man said, voice rasping slightly like rocks grinding together after his ‘sip’. “You’re going to go see Ozpin, right?”

Jaune made to nod, but stopped as the man placed a hand onto the top of his head, grabbing slightly at his yellow hair. The man then used his arm to force Jaune to nod, firmly but not painfully.

“Thought so,” He continued. “I need you to take a message to Ozpin from me. Alright?” Again the man made him nod.

Jaune spluttered at the man, shocked that he’d perform such a one sided conversation and just assume that Jaune would do what he said. “Why can’t you just tell Ozpin yourself?” Jaune asked indignantly, trying to free his head from the man’s grasp. But to no avail, as the drunk’s hand was firmly attached to his scalp.

The dishevelled man looked up in a motion that reminded Jaune of Ruby before answering his question. “I can’t exactly be seen walking into Ozpin’s office, it would make tensions raise and could send everyone into a panic. And I don’t think Oz appreciates having to fix his window every time I have a message to give him, particularly when there’s a convenient messenger standing right before me.”

Jaune fought the urge to facepalm, the man was starting to get on his nerves. Giving a pained sigh, Jaune gave in, figuring that it would be faster to just pretend to agree with the crazy man so he could just get to Ozpin’s office like he was supposed to. “Fine. What’s the message?”

Jaune almost regretted it the instant the man’s red eyes gleamed in the dark, a grin overcoming his face. “I knew you’d come around to my way of thinking. So, take this exact message to Ozpin, it is vital. Tell him that the Queen is in motion and our trigger-happy friend is starting to burn some bushes to force her out, but he’s spread himself thin, thin enough that one concentrated push could break us.” The man had removed his hand from Jaune’s head, but Jaune stuck around because everything that the man was saying was true. He may not understand it, but it was all true. “Oz needs to watch what he does next, as any small spark might light a forest fire.” The man sighed, walking over and punching a nearby wall, not even flinching as his hand met brick. “We can’t afford to push the envelope now, not like we did before, we can’t sacrifice as much this time around.” Frustration was beginning to seep into his tone, mixed with anger and a touch of pain. “Tell him to tread carefully and that he should watch out for movement within just as much as outside.”

Jaune swallowed, trying to commit the entire conversation to memory. Whatever this is was important and needed to get to Ozpin, and the man truly believed that. But just in case. “Who should I say that the message is from?” Jaune questioned. “Ozpin probably should know.”

The man rested a hand on the wall as he reached for his flask again, scoffing at the boy’s statement. “Heh, yeah… Tell him that it was from a dusty old crow.” The man laughed to himself as Jaune looked confusedly at him, wondering why he found it so funny. “Catch you later, kid.”

The man took another swig from his metal flask, stumbling back around the corner and off to somewhere else. Jaune stood there for a moment, thinking back through that odd conversation again. He should have just disregarded it as a drunk’s rambling, but the man had said it with such conviction and he had felt that conviction in every single word. The truth of the entire exchange. Jaune’s head snapped up to the corner as there came a sound like popping and snapping bones, followed by a bird calling out to the sky, possibly in pain.

Jaune tried to clear his head of the thought of investigating the source of the noise, as the last time he had done that he had been dragged into a confusing conversation with a man who appeared to be extremely drunk. Instead resolving to actually make his way to Ozpin’s office to finally arrive and see what the whole kerfuffle was all about, setting a mental note to give Ozpin the man’s message as soon as possible.

Jaune ran through the corridors, safe in the knowledge that Miss Goodwitch was already in a detention and would likely condone his actions had she known how late he had gotten. Legs pumping beneath him, Jaune pounded through the school, feeling his legs begin to ache as he ran into Ozpin’s tower. He ran to the elevator, jamming the call button and waiting for the elevator to come down to him. If the elevator was up at the top level, like the small screen above it was displaying, then it meant that someone else had gone up after Ruby had come down and was still up there.

Foot bouncing impatiently, Jaune repeated the mantra ‘come on’ over and over again under his breath, watching the tiny electronic screen as the elevator neared him. The second that the ping echoed around the room and the doors opened, Jaune was already inside the elevator, pressing the button for the top floor hurriedly. Why didn’t Ozpin have stairs? Come to think of it, wasn’t that dangerous in the event of a fire?

The doors closed and Jaune glanced over the set of buttons beside the doors of the elevator, trying to remember the entire encounter with the plastered man while the elevator lifted back up again. As he looked over the buttons, he saw that all of them other than the ground floor and the top floor required some kind of card clearance, and there was a key hole set beneath all the other buttons. Jaune shook the thought from his head as he began to formulate excuses such as ‘some crazy guy just started attacking me’ and ‘Zwei ate my homework’. To be perfectly honest, he hadn’t even met Zwei, only heard Ruby and Yang gush over him while Blake silently made throat slashing gestures with eyes warning Jaune against meeting the corgi.

The elevator made a ping and Jaune rushed out with excuses already on his tongue. They all died as he saw the beautiful girl standing off to the side of the office as Ozpin sat as his desk. She was taller than him with long red hair that came down to her waist in a ponytail. She had strikingly vivid green eyes and was wearing a strange set of bronze armour, with a black mini-skirt and tall metal boots that matched the colour of her chest piece. She had a long, red sash that was tied around her waist and hung down around her ankles. She was muscular and well-toned, with an easy smile on her face and hope in her eyes.

Jaune fumbled over his words to Ozpin as the man chuckled, taking a hasty sip from his mug before setting it down onto the large wooden table before him. Right next to the drink coaster on his desk. Jaune snapped from his appraisal of the girl, instead turning to view the headmaster with shock then with anger. Ozpin chuckled again before picking up his mug to take another sip, placing it on the other side of the ornate, wooden coaster. Jaune could feel the blood in his veins boil at the adamant motion. He tried to calm himself by diverting his attention to other topics, namely the tall, dark and drunk guy who had basically assaulted him.

“Professor Ozpin, there was this weird drunk guy who was in one of the corridors,” Jaune reported, trying to get Ozpin to realise that a fully grown man was on the school premises and that they should get more security than just relying on the students to protect themselves.

“I’m sure it’s perfectly fine,” The man infuriatingly said, ignoring the matter completely. “Have you met Miss Nikos before?”

Jaune shook his head as the girl waved and said a cheerful ‘hello’ to him. Jaune tried to press the headmaster, continuing with his mission. “He told me to bring you a message.”

“And why couldn’t he have done so himself?” Ozpin asked with a smile, echoing Jaune’s thought from earlier.

Jaune huffed in frustration. “He said it would cause mass panic.” Both Ozpin and the girl paid more attention to Jaune, Ozpin tracing the rim of his coffee cup with one finger. “The message was something about a queen moving into position and a mutual friend spreading himself thin.”

Ozpin calmly nodded to himself. “Rather grim, Mister Arc, but not news to me.”

“He said that the friend was poking a sleeping bear or something and that you should watch out for what you do next, because you can’t sacrifice as much this time around.” The Professor’s face darkened at that statement, but the man could sense that Jaune had more to add and he gestured with his unoccupied hand for the boy to continue. “Anything you do can start something big and you need to keep watch for threats from the inside and the outside.”

Ozpin frowned at the bad news, mulling over the new information as he began to regret recent events. He made to ask Jaune a question when he realised that the blond still had more to say. Ozpin nodded for the Arc to continue as he raised his mug to his lips to take a sip, placing the cup onto the coaster and sighing as he swallowed the coffee.

“You can’t push the envelope and a concentrated strike will break through. He said to tell you that the message was from ‘a dusty, old crow’ and that you would understand.” Ozpin grinned behind his steepled hands. “I don’t know what he was talking about, but he believed that it was true, I’m sure of that.”

Ozpin nodded, pursing his lips in thought. It was far too late now. The professor reached over with one hand to furiously type away at his scroll as his other hand gestured over to Pyrrha with an open palm. “Jaune, this is Pyrrha Nikos. Pyrrha, this is Jaune Arc. She will be joining Beacon and I wish for you to show her around.”

“Hello again!” Pyrrha said cheerfully, walking over to Jaune and holding a hand out to him for him to shake.

He accepted the outstretched arm as he said, “Hello, I’m Jaune.”

“I already said that.”

Pyrrha pointedly ignored Ozpin’s comment, instead shaking his hand in a firm grip as she smiled nicely at him. “I am Pyrrha, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

“You’re not lying…” Jaune trailed off, feeling the truth in the girl’s introduction.

Her smile tinged with confusion as she responded, “Of course not. Why would I?”

“Oh, it’s just that most people aren’t really that happy when they first meet me.” Jaune released her hand as he stepped back from her slightly.

“You’re glowing,” She pointed out.

Jaune looked down at himself. True to her word, he had a faint white glow around him, far brighter than he usually did when his power was activated. Worried, Jaune patted himself down, searching for any discrepancies or putting out whatever fires that had sprouted on his body. But the glowing refused to diffuse, only growing brighter. He looked up at Ozpin for help, but the man was sitting there with a smile and a distant look on his face. Great, no help from that corner.

Pyrrha was looking down at her gloved hand, Jaune could see a faint aura of darkness coating her arm as it spread to the rest of her. Pyrrha looked up from her hand to him in shock, the dark haze outlining her entire body. The constant clacking of the gears above Ozpin’s office that he had for ‘reasons’ stopped and Jaune tilted his head back to gaze up at them. All of them had a black outline surrounding them. The same colour as Pyrrha’s outline.

Jaune turned to her in shock, mouth gaping. “You can control metal?”

“Polarity,” The girl said. “But it feels more powerful. I can’t release the gears.”

Jaune looked up at the gears again, seeing one of them slowly begin to fold in on itself, making a horrendous noise as the metal folded out of shape. He winced at the sound and reached out to Pyrrha in some vain attempt to help her. When his hand met her bare shoulder, his white glow began to fade away, as did her dark aura, but Jaune could feel his power soar above the limits that held him back before. The warping metal stopped as Pyrrha focused on her hands, her Polarity turning off at her command.

Jaune looked over to Ozpin for some kind of confirmation of what he was thinking. “What just happened?” He asked the man, wanting answers.

“You and Miss Nikos have activated your Semblances, I was right.” Ozpin seemed inordinately pleased with himself, smiling as though he had just won a poker game with a royal flush.

“What does that mean?” Jaune asked.

The professor straightened in his chair and said, “It means that I’ve just poked a sleeping bear.” The smug expression vanished from his face in an instant, being taken over with a confused and worried one. “I wasn’t meant to say that.”

There was a loud bang and a cloud of smoke rose up over the buildings of the school in the direction of the sport field. Jaune could barely make out shards of ice flying through the air after the explosion. Ozpin stood up from his chair and walked over to the large window behind his desk, placing one hand onto the glass.

“Never mind, Mister Arc. I’ve just poked a sleeping bear. Twice.”

 

 

Ruby happily bounced around on the track, warming herself up for her race. It was only a qualifier, but it was one where Beacon was up against Mantle, Atlas’ biggest school for powers and Ozpin himself had organised the race. The race was a simple five-hundred metre dash. But as part of the school’s new decisions, it was a race that not only allowed for powers to be used, but also encouraged the use. Getting the fastest students to perfect their powers to finish the race as quickly as possible, honing their skills.

Any powers were allowed, the only exception was Semblances, as they were unfair advantages over powers that had more to do with luck than skill. Officiators would look over the participants of the race to see if any of them had any soulmates and ensured that if they did, that the soulmate would not be allowed within a certain distance of the competitors for the duration of the race.

Ruby flash stepped forward a few metres, not enough to tire herself out, using her speed to almost teleport the short distance. She danced on her tiptoes, trying to get her blood flowing with more ease. Her biggest competitor was out of the race, having exhausted himself in an early morning teleport to get to school on time. Apparently he had collapsed after teleporting the massive distance and was carried off to the nurse’s office by Miss Goodwitch.

He was the only one who could match and beat Ruby in a race, capable of simply teleporting the entire distance, and without him Ruby would easily win first place in any school races. But this was an interschool race and without him Ruby was now the sole upholder of Beacon’s honour, with a few of the slower competitors subbing in to make up the numbers. She pranced nervously about the track, hopping from foot to foot trying to bleed out some of her apprehension.

Ruby almost jumped when a voice crackled over the loudspeaker in the field, Ozpin calling out some announcement. “Could Ruby Rose please come to my office? Thank you.”

Great. Now she was going to miss her warmups. Ruby shrugged, it wasn’t like she needed them. She briefly thought about grabbing her bag before heading to find out what Ozpin wanted, but she decided against it. He probably wasn’t going to hold her back for the entire duration of the race, not when she was Beacon’s only hope. Sprinting to try to get to Ozpin’s office as quickly as possible, Ruby left the field, a few rose petals falling to the ground behind her.

 

“What are you drinking?”

Ozpin chuckled at the question, looking down into his mug as he thought about his answer. “What do you believe I’m drinking?”

Ruby squinted at the coffee cup. It was probably just coffee, but who knows, maybe Ozpin was like Qrow and hid alcohol in opaque cups. She frowned, maybe Yang was right… worth a shot. “Is it petrol?”

Ozpin gazed down into the dark liquid filling his cup and watched it swirl around, creating a hypnotic pattern of waves that circled the surface. “I hope not,” He commented dryly.

Ruby’s eyes wandered past Ozpin and out over into the sky, few white clouds framing the picturesque scene. She only snapped back to reality when she heard Ozpin clear his throat, looking at him as he raised an eyebrow.

“So umm Professor… I was wondering why you asked for me to be here,” Ruby stated, hands fidgeting with the edge of her skirt.

“Where is Jaune?” Ozpin asked.

Ruby confusedly looked at Ozpin with her head tilted off to the side. Ozpin had brought her here to ask where Jaune was? “He’s with Miss Goodwitch, practicing his powers to try and get better.”

“That’s good. And what are you doing to improve your power?” Ozpin asked, folding his hands together before him.

Ruby shuffled her feet, staring holes into the floor. “Well I’m supposed to be in a race soon and I practiced every day for it. I think I should win, but I’m not sure if Mantle will have any faster competitors.”

“Hmmm. Well then, I guess you had better try your best.” Ozpin stared through her and out into nothing, thinking silently to himself. Ruby sat in her chair, completely still, and she looked at Ozpin with wide eyes and a frozen expression on her face. The man hummed before snapping out of his contemplation and taking a sip from his cup. “Miss Rose, I trust that you will try your best.”

Ruby nodded eagerly, happy that he was back in the real world with her. “Yep!” Her brown hair flipped around atop her head and the red tips flew into view several times.

Ozpin smiled kindly before his face turned serious. “Ruby, will you do your best? Do I have your word?” Ruby shifted under his staunch gaze, face scrunching up slightly as she refused to meet his eyes. “Ruby?”

She looked up into his eyes, her silver eyes hardening. “You bet!”

 

Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap! She was almost late, bursting into the line of competitors less than a minute before the race was meant to begin. He cape fluttered around in the wind and bumped into one of the other Beacon students who glared at her before turning back to prepare for the race. Ruby mumbled an apology to the kid as she hurried over to her position. Wait… She was forgetting something.

Her manners!

Ruby had always wished her other competitors good luck before a race, particularly those that she hadn’t met before and wanted to make a good impression on. She turned to the nearest Mantle student, a pale girl dressed in a white skirt that was standing off to her left. Ruby held out a hand to her as she tried to catch the girl’s attention. But the girl was steadfastly ignoring her.

Not taking no for an answer, Ruby stepped across the line and in front of the girl, still holding her hand out to her. The girl huffed in frustration before standing up before Ruby and placing both her hands onto her hips and scowling at Ruby, her light-blue eyes glaring at the student who had placed herself in her way. Ruby expectantly grinned and held her hand out, waiting for the girl to shake it, but she didn’t budge.

“Ten.”

As the crackly voice came over the loudspeaker, the white girl’s eyes flickered slightly before her glare returned full force. But Ruby refused to back down. Ruby smiled hopefully at the girl, unsure as to why she wasn’t accepting her offer of luck and sportsmanship.

“Five.”

Weiss’ mouth formed into a frown that accentuated the scar over her left eye, why was this young girl standing before her and refusing to move?

“Four.”

Ruby began to bounce on the balls of her feet, anxious over whether or not she would be able to get back into position in time, but resolving not to move until she had wished at least one competitor good luck.

“Three.”

Weiss’ eyes widened as she realised that the brown-haired girl would refuse to move until she had shaken her hand. Weiss reached over and grasped her hand, shaking it quickly and ignoring the ‘good luck’ that the girl had given her.

“Two.”

The girl had finally moved out of her way and Weiss’ eyes began to glow a bright white in preparation for the race, ready to create a line of speed glyphs all the way to the finish line to win.

“One.”

This was it. Weiss slowed her breathing as she listened for the sound of the buzzer marking the start of the race. She could clearly hear the breathing of the other competitors and the occasional ruffle of clothing. But the girl beside her appeared to be hyperventilating. Was she that excited?

The buzzer sounded and Weiss summoned a line of glyphs, already stepping onto the first one as it formed. But when her foot came into contact with the top of the white glyph she suddenly lurched forward, far faster than she expected. Far faster than possible. The world blurred around her as she was flung forwards faster and faster with each glyph that she touched.

Suddenly a streak of red shot past her, flying at a speed faster than even her miraculously strengthened glyphs. Weiss blinked as a rose petal flew past her and she realised that the finish line was almost beneath her already, and a large concrete wall was just beyond that. Turning her remaining glyphs into glyphs that would slow her down instead of speed her up, Weiss resigned herself to the fact that she had lost to the younger girl who was so insistent on wishing her good luck.

Looking past the finish line and to the red blur that continued past the line, Weiss’ eyes widened as she saw the girl try to slow down but found herself unable to. She was heading straight for the massive solid wall beyond the track and couldn’t seem to turn or slow down in time. Weiss raised a hand, trying to summon a glyph to slow the girl down, but she didn’t factor in her own momentum and the glyph appeared on the wall itself in front of the frontrunner. Improvising, Weiss drew on her power to try anything to save the girl about to slam into the wall.

The glyph on the wall turned from a bright white into a dark red and the glyph, and the entire wall, exploded in fire and ice. The explosion sent rubble and shards of ice everywhere and Weiss yelled out to the girl who ran directly into the explosion. But when the first piece of shrapnel hit her, the girl exploded into a shower of rose petals that continued through the falling rock and ice. The cloud of petals flew out the other side, slower than the girl had been moving before, and turned back into the girl. She had a shocked expression on her face as she materialised and tripped over something on the uneven ground and tumbled to the ground at high speeds, rolling along the ground and bouncing off it several times.

Weiss forgot the race and ran over to the girl, careful to only use one speed glyph to boost herself there faster. She slid over the ground and came to a stop before the bruised girl who was sitting up in the grass, looking dizzily around at everything. She was swaying around, her upper body leaning back and forth in her disorientated state. Weiss fell to her knees before the girl, bringing them to the same height. The girl shook her head and looked at Weiss with surprise.

“Wow.”

 

 

“General Ironwood, Sir! We’ve had an alert!”

“What is it, Winter?”

“Three Omega levels and one Alpha level! Two potential reality warpers and one possible Psi!”

“Shit! Where?!”

“Beacon!”

“Ozpin…”

“Are we going to act, Sir?”

“How many agents do we have available?”

“Only two Sigmas, all the others are out on assignment.”

“Send them both.”

“Sir, only one Sigma is required for each assignment.”

“Not this time. Prepare my ship.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“See if you can contact Qrow, try to get him to Beacon!”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Ozpin… What have you done?”

 

 

“We’ve managed to intercept an alert. It would seem as though three new Omegas have been found.”

“Ozpin has been busy.”

“We’ve dealt with their kind before.”

“Yes, but that was before they decided to start sending in Sigmas with every single Omega.”

“We can handle the Sigmas.”

“I was not questioning you skill, I was questioning our tactics.”

“Silence. Tyrian, Cinder, you will find these Omegas, you will separate them, and you will kill them.”

“Of course.”

“Anything for my Queen!”

“Watts, intercept whatever agents they may think of sending to reinforce Beacon, our connections in Vale may have use yet.”

“At once, Salem.”

“Hazel?”

“Yes.”

“We’re going to go pay dear Ozpin a visit. Leave, all of you, you must be in position as soon as possible.”

“Hahahahahaha, Omegas! Finally! Hahahahahahaha…”

“Have fun being stuck with… him. Be sure not to get too ambitious while the real villains are out doing actual work, Cinder.”

“I will burn you into nothing if that is what you wish.”

“Enough. We have jobs to do. I shall await your grace by the transport.”

“Good…… What are you planning, Ozpin?"


End file.
